That thing that everyone insists never happens has happened again, in New Jersey and with documented evidence exposed by the governor herself. The major networks covered it on the Elitist Media evening news, with one of the newscasts mitigating a damaging counternarrative story with “But Trump” filler.
Watch as ABC World News Tonight counterprogrammed news of the discovery with whataboutism on President Trump. Watch the full report as aired on Tuesday, July 21st, 2026:
WATCH: ABC mitigates 58 seconds on New Jersey's discovery of 6000+ illegal aliens on the voter rolls with 48 seconds of "But Trump". A story so damning it needs "seasoning" in order to air.
DAVID MUIR: Now to the election error revealed here in the Northeast, New Jersey's… pic.twitter.com/g715ZCtHhT— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 22, 2026
DAVID MUIR: Now to the election error revealed here in the Northeast, New Jersey's governor tonight revealing more than 6000 noncitizens were mistakenly added to the voter rolls in that state. So how did this happen and how many actually voted? Here's Mary Bruce tonight.
MARY BRUCE: Tonight, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill revealing that because of a computer error, about 6600 noncitizens applying for a driver's license were also improperly registered to vote.
MIKIE SHERRILL: In the case of this error, some individuals indicated that they weren't citizens and weren't eligible to vote, but the software registered them anyway.
BRUCE: The governor says about 400 of those noncitizens actually voted, but that there's no evidence their votes swayed any elections. She says officials became aware of the issue last week, and that all 6600 people are being scrubbed from the voter rolls.
SHERRILL: We don't deflect, deny or exploit problems for our own gain. We find them and we fix them.
BRUCE: The White House says the episode, quote, “underscores the absolute necessity of the SAVE America Act, President Trump's bill requiring voter ID and proof of citizenship. The President has been amping up his unproven claims of widespread election fraud, pointing a finger at China.
DONALD TRUMP: …of China's sinister election meddling.
BRUCE: Just three months ago, Trump heaped praise on China's longtime leader Xi Jinping.
TRUMP: You're a great leader. I say it to everybody. You're a great leader. Sometimes people don't like me saying it, but I say it anyway because it's true.
BRUCE: Today, asked if China will now face consequences for their alleged election meddling. Trump brushing it off.
TRUMP: Well, we're going to talk to them about it. It took place a long time ago. I think China is maybe a little bit different today than it was then.
BRUCE: And David, back to New Jersey, the governor there says they are now scrubbing their voter rolls. And she vows this will never happen again, saying when they find problems, they fix them. David.
MUIR: Mary Bruce live at The White House tonight. Mary, thanks.
It is interesting that ABC keeps wanting to relitigate the President Trump speech on election security that they refused to air. Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce, at her Mary Bruciest, conjures up a mishmash of the election security speech, President Trump’s trip to China, and the SAVE America Act in order to deflect from the fact that a blue state (albeit in error, as we are told) registered ineligible noncitizens to vote.
The story is too damaging to the prevailing narrative and therefore can’t just be allowed to run alone on ABC. Hence Bruce, the most overtly partisan of the White House chiefs, ran mitigation. Bruce, true to form, concludes her report by parroting Gov. Sherrill’s line on finding and fixing problems almost verbatim. And that really sums up Bruce’s reporting. Sherrill gets fluff, Trump gets “unproven claims” and “Xi-lover.”
CBS, on the other hand, ran the cleanest story of all. Here is Weijia Jiang’s brief at the end of her Iran roundup, as aired on the CBS Evening News on Tuesday, July 21st, 2026:
WATCH: In contrast to ABC, CBS offered a clean brief on NJ's discovery of 6600+ noncitizen voters
TONY DOKOUPIL: Weijia, in other news, New Jersey's Democratic governor today announced that some noncitizens were indeed able to vote in recent elections. What can you tell us… pic.twitter.com/50BUPj2tm2— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 22, 2026
TONY DOKOUPIL: Weijia, in other news, New Jersey's Democratic governor today announced that some noncitizens were indeed able to vote in recent elections. What can you tell us about that?
WEIJIA JIANG: Tony, that's right. Governor Mikie Sherrill revealed about 6600 noncitizens were accidentally added to New Jersey's voter rolls. And about 400 of them cast improper ballots in recent elections. Sherrill said it was a serious software error in the state's motor vehicle system that led to the mistake. When these people were applying for driver's license, they answered no when asked if they were U.S. citizens but they were registered to vote, anyway. Sherrill says she is taking action to prevent anything like that from happening again. Tony.
DOKOUPIL: Weijia, thank you.
There is none of the fluff or mitigation included in the ABC report. Jiang performs a straightforward recitation of the story and allows viewers to assess the presented facts for themselves. A rare occurrence on the Elitist Media evening news.
The same can almost be said for NBC Nightly News:
WATCH: NBC' s brief on NJ discovery of 6000+ noncitizens on the voter rolls. No "But Trump" mitigation like ABC, non-specific description of the SAVE America Act without describing it by name.
TOM LLAMAS: And tonight we are learning hundreds of noncitizens in New Jersey were… pic.twitter.com/jVnRML5G1M— Jorge Bonilla (@BonillaJL) July 22, 2026
TOM LLAMAS: And tonight we are learning hundreds of noncitizens in New Jersey were able to cast ballots because of a software glitch. Ryan Nobles joins us now live. And Ryan, the governor came out today and revealed this herself.
RYAN NOBLES: Yeah, that's right, Tom. New Jersey's Governor Mikie Sherrill said that a DMV software error led to more than 6,000 noncitizens being registered to vote when they signed up for driver's licenses or identification cards. 400 of those noncitizens actually cast ballots in New Jersey elections between 2023 and 2024, though it’s unclear which elections. The governor said they were registered as Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated voters and there's no evidence that any elections were swayed as a result. The state is now in the process of removing all of those names from the voter rolls. The number of noncitizens accidentally registered to vote were a tiny percentage of the overall New Jersey electorate. Now, President Trump, of course, putting pressure on Congress to pass new laws that would require all voters to demonstrate proof of citizenship before being eligible to vote. Tom.
LLAMAS: Ryan Nobles for us.
The difference between this report and CBS’s is that Congressional Correspondent Ryan Nobles did a bit of mitigation by stating that “there’s no evidence any elections were swayed as a result” of the 400 ineligible noncitizen voters. There isn’t any evidence that they didn’t sway an election, either. Nobles doesn’t say that. Nobles also goes on to mention the SAVE America Act in a weird, non-specific way, without actually saying its name.
The good news in all this is that the Elitist Media evening news DIDN’T suppress a counternarrative story that bolsters President Trump’s arguments in favor of election security laws. On the other, the most Trump-deranged network reported the story in the most Trump-deranged way.
